Something ive been considering the practicalities of for ages and havent been able come up with a sensible idea yet:paint break in your barrel, have to get the squeegi/fluffy out to clean it mid game. 3-10 seconds when your gun is down yeah?, so would it be possible to make something that you could just stick in a pod, load and shoot through your gat like a normal paintball but it would clean the barrel on the way though.

Now to my mind, the first concern would be that if we made this and it was too heavy or solid and someone was shot with this fluffyball/cleaning thing it could injure them, the second concern is that if it were made too light and fluffy (eg compressed lint) it couldnt be processed through the loader, the firing mechanism and out the barrel..causing more problems than its worth. So is there any way that anyone can think of to find a balance betweeen these two extremes and create a fluffyball that could be loaded and shot, but clean the gun en route.

Ive come up with a basic design breif which ive been mulling over, and I hope someone has more luck than I do.

Design Breif for a fluffyball-Must not cause injury to either player or bystanders-Must clean marker as it passes through it-Must be off sufficient structural intergrity to pass through mechanism without comprimsing the working of the mechanism-Must be either cheap or reusable

So my ideas thus far are: 1- to make a rubber ball coated in fluff, but with an off centre weight so it wouldnt fly straight for any distance at all, and in so doing use up all its kinetic energy in turning (the same way hookshot/curve ball paintball doesnt fly as far as a straight flying paintball)

2- something that would break apart on exiting the barrel of the marker or when struck by the bolt but would still retain the capacity to clean the barrel, eg chalk, woodchip etc

I like your idea, (quick patent it before smart parts sues you!) but you also have to consider that you have to take your loader off in order to load a cleaner ball. Which depending on what kind of feedneck you have could be very hard.

Unless of course you would want to have a kind of Y pipe that has your loader attached to one side and the fluffy balls (not that kind shut up!) on the other side and have them load when you need it to.

from what I'm thinking you may need multiple fluffy balls to get the break cleared.

Just my input.

My FeedbackRIP BORG, you will be dearly missed in the paintball world for all you have done for us.

Or maybe instead of making a paintball/round that goes through the barrel how about making a board that has special lever/button that when triggered send a blast of straight air through the barrel cleaning it the way through.

Wow...... genius idea. It would be a hard idea to come up with. Not the actual fluffy ball itself but how it is
set into the ball chamber.....
One cool idea I think might work

what if you had a compresed, "fluffy"
And you would insert it down your barrell...and when you would fire your gun the sudden rush of air would expand the .... "fluffyness" and make it clean the barrell.

It would be compressed so it would roll down the barrel with ease by the way. If you didn't choose this idea you would have to somehow figure out someway to get it down into your barell. But I think the best way would to have it compressed and you could have it like in your pocket. Or somehow like stored under your mask with some sort of holder for quick access. I like this idea.

No matter how you cut it, there's no way these fluff-balls could be introduced into the loading mechanism faster than the time it would take to just grab a swab from your leg pocket and swab your barrel.

No matter how you cut it, there's no way these fluff-balls could be introduced into the loading mechanism faster than the time it would take to just grab a swab from your leg pocket and swab your barrel.

You wouldn't have to have it in your "loading mechanism," also known as a hopper...My idea was that you would roll it down your barrell. Like a ball, and it would expand when the rush of air would hit it. Therefore you can say its being pushed out the barrell and cleaning it out. Which would be faster than pulling out a swab, cleaning your barrell and putting your swab back in your leg pocket.As you can see... I made sure that I was using correct grammar as you like to detour from peoples cases which always seem to get on your nerves. I hope you are happy

How would you roll it down your barrel? By putting it in the front? If there's paint in the barrel, it's gonna move about an inch before it just sticks and sits there. Also, you're still not using proper grammar. So just stop trying. Then again, it IS kind of funny to see you struggling (and failing) to please me.

No matter how you cut it, there's no way these fluff-balls could be introduced into the loading mechanism faster than the time it would take to just grab a swab from your leg pocket and swab your barrel.

I agree. If it was hopper loaded, you'd have to empty the hopper and feedneck of balls before introducing the fluffy ball. If not hopper loaded, then you have to take the barrel off anyway to load the ball and then shoot it out. Sounds slower of an operation than just swabbing.

Personally, I would like to see an umbrella swab. Similar to a T-squeegee, you release a lever and it unfolds like an unbrella with fuzzy material on the tips. That way it scoops the material, moves it towards the shaft, and swabs the barrel at the same time. Unlike the T-squeegee, it might not push as much paint towards the bolt when inserted.

i don't see why you could not have some fluffy balls already in your hopper/pods. essentially every once in a while you would shoot a fluffy ball to clean your barrel, but it would be completely random.

have you ever seen the airsoft paintball adaptors? I think you could create something similar to that and have like a pull release that drops your fuzzy ball into the breach. While a paintball forces the fuzzy ball through the barrel cleaning everything from the barrel... Just a subjestion, you may be able to get some ideas from that...

i don't see why you could not have some fluffy balls already in your hopper/pods. essentially every once in a while you would shoot a fluffy ball to clean your barrel, but it would be completely random.

How many balls would it take to completely clean your barrel? More than one. If they're randomly distributed in your hopper, odds of getting one after another are pretty low. What if two aren't enough? Odds of getting three in a row would be VERY low, unless your hopper was half-full of these..."fluffies." It's a flawed idea. Just use a frickin' swab!

Maybe you could just randomly add the balls to the hopper like a tracer round, like 1 every 10-20. It could be dual purpose too, maybe they could be extra shinny or something to call attention to a shooting arc and can be easily seen by a tv camera or something. Pretty out there but still fun to consider.

I like your idea, (quick patent it before smart parts sues you!) but you also have to consider that you have to take your loader off in order to load a cleaner ball. Which depending on what kind of feedneck you have could be very hard.

Unless of course you would want to have a kind of Y pipe that has your loader attached to one side and the fluffy balls (not that kind shut up!) on the other side and have them load when you need it to.

from what I'm thinking you may need multiple fluffy balls to get the break cleared.

Just my input.

You could have one fluffly to every 100 paintballs in your pods which would save loading in game fluffys

Well I dont know about the re-usable factor to that. Just think, after you do shoot one through to clean it, you would have to go chase it down and find it if you were going to "re-use" it. Not to mention you could possibly get debris on it, which when fired, could end up hurting someones. Say a peice of glass?

How would you roll it down your barrel? By putting it in the front? If there's paint in the barrel, it's gonna move about an inch before it just sticks and sits there. Also, you're still not using proper grammar. So just stop trying. Then again, it IS kind of funny to see you struggling (and failing) to please me.

No one is using (or trying to use) proper grammar to impress you. Don't feel so flattered.

why not throw a few reballs or somthing similar before hand so that all you have to do is keep shooting through until you get a cleaner ball?

thou u would have to underbore to make it a little more effective

Reballs are pretty expensive, and I think that a barrel swab would be more effective anyway. You would get a good clean, and it would take half the time. Not to mention that it would cost a lot less, too.

Edited by Grndslmhttr3, 06 December 2008 - 03:50 PM.

^Midnight Meat Train^I have a ghetto-ass Tippmann 98c with the front grip sawed off, and the paint chipping off everywhere.My "main" gun is a PMR w/ an Evil Pipe kit, and a UL frame. Hopefully a Pinokio some time soon. <<< been saying this Pinokio shit for two years, MIGHT ACTUALLY HAPPEN THIS CHRISTMAS???I fucked with my Ion and it needs new seals and a new reg. It too looks ugly as shit.

Really? I must not have seen those pictures or whatever you're basing that on, I can't say I've ever been able to shoot through a break without at least some loss of accuracy until using a swab. I've seen of the pics that Lord Odin took about clearing breaks by shooting paint, I wouldn't say they came even close to what a quick swab would do.

so the answer is no then?? no one has a sane way to create this?

A ball designed specifically to clean the barrel is a sweet idea, the problem is loading it. I liked the idea someone had of rolling something down the barrel and then when the gun is fired, it expands on the way out to clean it. That would be quick and practical in a real game. That's the way I'd go if I were to design something like this. Sure there's a sane way to create this, but it will take some thought and research. Don't expect us to do the work for ya! Give it some thought, I'm sure you can come up with something cool.

hypothesisA paintball break in a barrel can be cleaned to restore the level of accuracy achived before the break by using a solid absorbant object fired down the barrel in the same manner as a paintball.

Method1-fired approx ten paintballs down the barrel to establish a qualatitve level of accuracy in a clean barrel2-I broke 2 paintballs in the barrel by forcing them down the barrel and breaking them entirley by poking with a cocktail stick3-shot another ten balls down the barrel to establish a qualatitive level of accuracy with a dirty barrel4-shot reball down the barrel to simulate the action a fluffyball could have5-shot another ten balls to establish the level of accuracy after a reball had been shot down the barrel6-compared the accuracy between the three states (clean, dirty, after reball)7-alternated shooting a reball and ten paintballs several more times thourgh the barrel to asscertain how many it takes to get the accuracy to return to the level of the clean barrel. (eg completly clean the barrel)

Resultswith the clean barrel, the shots were accurate hitting the target 8/10 timeswith the dirty barrel, the shots were all over the shop and I was able to hit an A4 sized target at 15meters only once out of ten shots.after the first reball the accuracy improved and i was able to hit the box 6/10 times, however the accuracy did not reach the level of the clean barrel. It could be seen that when the reball was fired, a large plug of paint debris was ejected out the barrel. after 4 more reballs accuracy returned to 7/10 shots hitting the target.

ConclusionThe null hypothesis is true.

discussionThe results show that it is possible for a paintball break in a barrel to be cleaned using (in this case) a reball, however it did not restore the level of accuracy previous to the break and took several more reballs to restore accuracy to a level comparable with that attained before the break. So in this instance the Null hypothesis is true. (it aint working)

This could be due to the lack of absorbance of a reball, if the surface of the object were made more absorbant it could be argued that the barrel would be cleaned more throughly,I aim to test this in my next experiment.

Now im off to go rescue the reballs from the hedge before the cat eats them.

hypothesisA paintball break in a barrel can be cleaned to restore the level of accuracy achived before the break by using a solid absorbant object fired down the barrel in the same manner as a paintball.

Method1-fired approx ten paintballs down the barrel to establish a qualatitve level of accuracy in a clean barrel2-I broke 2 paintballs in the barrel by forcing them down the barrel and breaking them entirley by poking with a cocktail stick3-shot another ten balls down the barrel to establish a qualatitive level of accuracy with a dirty barrel4-shot reball down the barrel to simulate the action a fluffyball could have5-shot another ten balls to establish the level of accuracy after a reball had been shot down the barrel6-compared the accuracy between the three states (clean, dirty, after reball)7-alternated shooting a reball and ten paintballs several more times thourgh the barrel to asscertain how many it takes to get the accuracy to return to the level of the clean barrel. (eg completly clean the barrel)

Resultswith the clean barrel, the shots were accurate hitting the target 8/10 timeswith the dirty barrel, the shots were all over the shop and I was able to hit an A4 sized target at 15meters only once out of ten shots.after the first reball the accuracy improved and i was able to hit the box 6/10 times, however the accuracy did not reach the level of the clean barrel. It could be seen that when the reball was fired, a large plug of paint debris was ejected out the barrel. after 4 more reballs accuracy returned to 7/10 shots hitting the target.

ConclusionThe null hypothesis is true.

discussionThe results show that it is possible for a paintball break in a barrel to be cleaned using (in this case) a reball, however it did not restore the level of accuracy previous to the break and took several more reballs to restore accuracy to a level comparable with that attained before the break. So in this instance the Null hypothesis is true. (it aint working)

This could be due to the lack of absorbance of a reball, if the surface of the object were made more absorbant it could be argued that the barrel would be cleaned more throughly,I aim to test this in my next experiment.

Now im off to go rescue the reballs from the hedge before the cat eats them.

here the issue your having, reaballs are tiny. like .670 or .665 tiny.

what you need is something bigger then the barrel, so is will make a really good seal, and push out all that crap in front of it.

hense, way i suggested underboring. the next few paintballs after the break will clean it up real quick and easy.

The ultimate truth in paintball is that the interaction between the gun and the player is far and away the largest factor in accuracy, consistency, and reliability.

i have an idea, how about a cotton ball that is on the inside of a paintball shell and was oversized so that it would open in the barrel and clean the inside of the barrel. i know what your thinking, you can't get a cotton ball inside a paintshell. well, you actually can(well not you, the paint encapulation comanies). it's as easy as puting a paint fill. instead of injecting paint, it would be injecting cotton fibers.

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But if it is encapsulated it would need to spilt on entrance to the breach in order to clean.

The fluffy ball sounds great to use after re-ball training to remove all the grit from the barrel but no more so than runnign water through it.

During games will it be practical? even if you had one in every pod sods law states that you would shoot your fluffy ball and then break paint and then need to wait another pod for one to appear.

As for loading at the end of the barrel, you have several problems;

1 - Loading down barrel mid game with a small ball not only would take up more time than using a normal fluffy stick, but you will probably drop it in in the mud.

2- If there has been a chop or a major break the fluffy ball will not roll back far enough to clean the barrel once air is projected through.

Overall I think the concept of a way to clean yoru barrel mid game without using a fluffy is a good one, but the application of the fluffy ball is perhaps impractical.

There are patents out for a couple of self-cleaning barrels but none have worked..... so maybe something to ponder in more detail, or perhaps look at it from another angle. Sod mid-game look at it for cleaning barrel and hopper feedneck at end of a days play. Could save a shite load of time for those having to pull apart hopper shells etc.

So idea: Maybe work on fluffy balls for end of day to be fired into a pod or something, re-usable like re-balls perhaps washable so at end of day can run through your hopper and gun to clean internals.

How would you roll it down your barrel? By putting it in the front? If there's paint in the barrel, it's gonna move about an inch before it just sticks and sits there. Also, you're still not using proper grammar. So just stop trying. Then again, it IS kind of funny to see you struggling (and failing) to please me.

Um... buddy, nobody's trying to please you. And if you don't like that, you might as well leave.

Except its a velcro ball, made for target practice. But it MAY have similar qualities as your idea ( apart from the expanding part, which is a good idea, except I think you pretty much need an empty hopper for it to be good).

If you are going to go through the trouble of using a null hypothesis you might as well do it right. Technically, (and this is really a finer point of scientific philosophy that scientists have to deal with all the time) you can't prove a hypothesis, you can lend confirmation to a hypothesis and you can disprove a hypothesis... that's all. Not a big deal, of course, but that's what a null hypothesis is for...

As you can see... I made sure that I was using correct grammar as you like to detour from peoples cases which always seem to get on your nerves. I hope you are happy

- Lucas

Also, you're still not using proper grammar. So just stop trying. Then again, it IS kind of funny to see you struggling (and failing) to please me.

For those Martha Fokkers who keep saying "Nobody's trying to please you, don't flatter yourself," you can now see that this guy was trying to please me. On top of that, I'd been going back and forth with this Lucas guy in PMs about how I thought he'd be a bad moderator because he's hard to understand due to his awful grammar. Which is why he said what he did, and why I said what I did. But hey, feel free to keep going on about it if that makes you feel cool.

There's no way to quickly introduce an alternate type of ammo without a mod to the gun itself. You'd have to have some kind of little hatch you could flip open that would expose the breach...and close off the feedneck at the same time. As for the introduction of the fuzzballs, I would think a spring-loaded 10-round tube would work. You could keep a couple of them around your wrist like pump players do. You would open the tube next to the exposed breach, and the spring would push the fluffballs in. Then you just fire them off toward the ground or whatever. Save the tube or toss it on the ground to pick up later.

If anybody can think of something faster, I'd like to hear it. But I think a much more practical idea is coming up with a sort of bayonet-style holder for a swab, right there on your barrel. Then you don't have to go digging in a pocket for it, it's right there. It would be universal and cheap. You could probably make them yourself with a 10-round tube (or two), some duct-tape, and some of those big fat rubber bands. Or something similar. I think I'll do something like that myself sometime, just to see how it works out.

But if it is encapsulated it would need to spilt on entrance to the breach in order to clean. that is why i said the fluffyball will be bigger than the barrel's boreThe fluffy ball sounds great to use after re-ball training to remove all the grit from the barrel but no more so than runnign water through it.

During games will it be practical? even if you had one in every pod sods law states that you would shoot your fluffy ball and then break paint and then need to wait another pod for one to appear. have like 5 fluffies per 100 rounds, odds are if you break a ball a fluffy will be their in 15 or less shots

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yes, really good find. that makes this idea very, very plausible. it gives you the abilaty to insert the fluffy right after a paintball breaks.

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no, but it certainly cleans out after the break the best, mann's testing showed that pretty well.

What other effects does underboring have? The amount of contact required to clean the barrel would also create a lot of friction and reduce the range of the paintball, wouldn't it? Moreover, this would require a whole new barrel. How is this better than just swabbing?

no, but it certainly cleans out after the break the best, mann's testing showed that pretty well.

What other effects does underboring have? The amount of contact required to clean the barrel would also create a lot of friction and reduce the range of the paintball, wouldn't it? Moreover, this would require a whole new barrel. How is this better than just swabbing?

its not better then swabbing.

but its something that cleans your barrel from the inside, with normal cycles, like the OP wanted. the frist shots will be slow, of course, but they will push all the gunk out the front the barrel, much better then overboring or matching will.

nothing is gonna be better then i good tear down and clean, but of the on-feild non-squeggie options, underboring will work the best.

The ultimate truth in paintball is that the interaction between the gun and the player is far and away the largest factor in accuracy, consistency, and reliability.

i don't see why you could not have some fluffy balls already in your hopper/pods. essentially every once in a while you would shoot a fluffy ball to clean your barrel, but it would be completely random.

How many balls would it take to completely clean your barrel? More than one. If they're randomly distributed in your hopper, odds of getting one after another are pretty low. What if two aren't enough? Odds of getting three in a row would be VERY low, unless your hopper was half-full of these..."fluffies." It's a flawed idea. Just use a frickin' swab!

My idea is this........You odn't needa freaking fluffy ball!!!You could have a pod, almost like a swab. But alot less of one, it could have 3 divides to it.

1. A main paint obsorber2. A a seondary paint obsorber3. A polisher

All in a tube connected but like three different parts, like a mini squeegie. And you put it down your barrell. It slides down. Because its smaller... at the moment and the paintball when fired pushes it out as well as the air somehow "inflating" the materials to brush against the walls of teh barrell and clean it out. I'm working on a design. Maybe... just maybe I might be able to get a patent. You also could have a hopper adapted mechanism for actual balls but I'm not going to get into that just for uknown reasons.

What other effects does underboring have? The amount of contact required to clean the barrel would also create a lot of friction and reduce the range of the paintball, wouldn't it? Moreover, this would require a whole new barrel. How is this better than just swabbing?

It's not better than swabbing - but this whole thread is about non-swab options.

And no - the seal of the ball to barrel far out-weighs the increase in friction - our testing actually shows significant INCREASE in velocity when underboring.